Wildlife dept releases deer in Mukundra reserve
The idea behind bringing ungulates from other districts is to ensure a minimum viable population of prey base at MHTR
in a bid to improve the prey base at Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve, the wildlife department is releasing ungulates brought from other parts of the state.
The reserve (MTR), notified by the state government in 2013, does not have a tiger population of its own as yet . The department wants to make conditions congenial for the tigers before introducing big cats to the reserve.
Deputy conservator of forest at MHTR, SR Yadav, said that a total of around 70 ungulates have been released in the Seljare forest range of the reserve in the last 2 months in a phased manner.
“The ungulates were kept in an enclosure at Seljar forest range for over a week’s time before releasing them in the wild. That helped the deer get acclimatized with the new environment of MHTR”, he said, adding that 16 more ungulates are still waiting to be released there.
Yadav also revealed that around 64 spotted deer were brought from Jaipur Zoo from the purpose and the rest have been sourced from Shahpura.
He said that the department aims to bring another set of 320 spotted deer from other districts and 30 sambhar from the Military Area in Kota. “The idea behind bringing ungulates from other wildlife areas is to ensure a minimum viable population of prey base at MHTR,” Yadav clarified
Presently there are around 400 spotted deer at the reserve as against the desired population of around 1000. The number of Sambhar there does not exceed 100 and the department in MTR has pegged the desired number at 500.
Dr Akhilesh Pandey, veterinary doctor of wildlife department, said that the ungulates have adapted well in the reserve. MHTR is spread over 759 square kilometres, of which the core area covers 417 square km and the rest is buffer zone.